In the main GT class, Risi Competizione team will entrust a 296 GT3 to official Competizioni GT drivers
Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra, the same crew that finished on the
second step of the podium in 2022. The no. 62 car will start from ninth on the grid, dictated by the 1’49”495
time recorded during the Roar Before the 24 qualifying session, with the Brazilian driver at the wheel.
Two months after their third WEC Drivers’ Championship triumph in the LMGTE Pro class, and one month
on from their success at the Gulf 12 Hours, the Italo-British pairing Pier Guidi-Calado will once again be in
the spotlight on the historic American track. Rounding out the quartet will be Rigon and Serra, who last
season were crowned IMSA series Endurance Cup champions, with the same team, at the wheel of a 488
GT3 Evo 2020.
GTD
The class that includes crews made up of professionals as well as gentlemen drivers will feature three 296
GT3s on the starting line, each with at least one official Maranello driver. Antonio Fuoco, Roberto Lacorte,
Giorgio Sernagiotto and Alessandro Balzan will make up the Cetilar Racing team in the no. 47 296 GT3,
which set the ninth quickest class time in qualifying, with the official Competizioni GT driver registering
1’48”309.
Miguel Molina with Simon Mann, Francesco Castellacci and Luís Pérez Companc will handle the AF
Corse-run no. 21 car, which is set to start from the seventeenth spot by virtue of the 1’49”265 marker set by
the Spanish driver.
Completing the trio will be Triarsi Competizione, relying on Alessio Rovera and Andrea Bertolini, called upon
to line up alongside Onofrio Triarsi and Charlie Scardina. The American team in the no. 023 car qualified
twenty-second with a 1’49”763 best qualifying lap time set by Rovera.
The history
Daytona’s name is intrinsically linked to the world-famous endurance race, the 24 Hours, held in January,
representing the first major event of the international motorsport season. This year sees the 61st edition of
the event, with 61 crews competing, sub-divided into GTP (a platform debuting in the race), LMP2 and
LMP3 class prototypes, and the closed-wheel cars of GTD Pro and GTD (GT3 platform).
Ferrari have won 5 overall and 16 class wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona, the last of which was in 2014 when
Pier Guidi alongside Americans Tucker-Sweedler-Bell-Segal won the GTD class in a 458 Italia GT3. The
date 1967 remains indelibly stamped in endurance racing history, when Ferrari celebrated a podium lockout
with a side-by-side parade finish: first were Lorenzo Bandini and Chris Amon in a 330 P3/P4, ahead of Mike
Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti in a 330 P4 and Pedro Rodriguez and Jean Guichet in a 412 P.
The track
The Daytona International Speedway was inaugurated in 1959 in Florida, not far from Daytona Beach, where
car races were already being organised in the late 1940s, partly taking advantage of public roads and partly
using the beach front overlooking the Atlantic. The circuit layout for the 24 Hours, which for the most part
uses the tri-oval track, is characterised by its banked curves – reaching as high as a 31° gradient – is 3.56
miles (5.73 kilometres) long and features 12 turns.
The car
The Ferrari 296 GT3, derived from the 296 GTB, represents the latest evolution of the two-seater
mid-rear-engined Prancing Horse berlinetta. The competition racer, which will be the protagonist of the top
international sprint and endurance races, is fitted with a 2,992cc turbo V6 engine with a maximum power
output of 600 bhp and a maximum torque of 710 Nm (values subject to Balance of Performance), mated to a
6-speed sequential transverse gearbox.
The programme
The grid for the 24 Hours was determined by the qualifying session at the Roar Before the 24 held on 22
January. Thursday, 26 January will feature two free practice sessions, open to all classes, from 11.05 and
19.15, with the GTDs getting their turn from 15.20 and the GTD Pros from 15.35. Friday 27 will see the
practice session from 11.20. The endurance race itself:
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